Rob Parnell's Writing Academy Blog

Welcome to this week's newsletter. I hope everything's good for you - and that you're not making too many compromises in your life!  See the article below for more.   Get my latest novel from Kindle!   Murder, mystery, love, loyalty and two friends with awesome psychic powers!  Click HERE - Now! Currently I'm running a wonderful masterclass on plotting stories. Click on the picture below for more info! THIS WEEK'S ARTICLE: What Do You Believe? Rob Parnell It occurs to me that life is really about a series of compromises.   Personal, professional and public.   As children, our parents teach us that we can't always get our own way.  Because when we're adult we find out - often the hard way - that our will must bend to societal pressure, peer pressure - the will of our employers, friends and family - and the law. In a sense our lives are one long exercise in conf...

Dear Fellow Writer, Welcome to this week's newsletter.  Three weeks left till we start shooting First Cut . Getting all the last minute preparations done. Looking like it's going to be great! If you want to be involved - and instantly become a movie producer, go here.   Get my latest novel from Kindle!   Murder, mystery, love, loyalty and two friends with awesome psychic powers!  Click HERE - Now! Currently I'm running a masterclass on plotting stories. Click on the picture below for more information. THIS WEEK'S ARTICLE: Is there something wrong with you? Rob Parnell An article I read this week suggested that writers are somehow more prone to mental illness than 'normal people'. Suicide rates, bipolar disorders, substance abuse and incidents of clinical depression are all apparently higher in creative types - and this is based on a Swedish scientific survey of over a million people! Scar...

Welcome to this week's newsletter. I hope you're well and happy. If you're not a rich writer yet, see below for guidance. If you want to instantly become a movie producer, go here. Get my latest novel from Kindle!   Murder, mystery, love, loyalty and two friends with awesome psychic powers!  Click HERE - Now! This week I've started a new writing course on plotting stories. Click on the picture below for more - get it while it's cheap! Click on the image below to write like Shakespeare! THIS WEEK'S ARTICLE: How To Make Money FAST From Your Writing! Rob Parnell (Warning: this article contains tough love!) Many people email and ask what they can do NOW, this minute, to make money from their writing.  It must be something to do with the age we live in - to expect that we can just make money appear in a flash is something we know is impossible but still we hang on desperately to the idea - especially wh...

As you've probably noticed, I've been moving into film and the visual media a lot more over the last year or so. This is because, from a writer's perspective, film has it all. Film starts with writing - nothing can happen without a script -  and is film about story telling. Even non fiction on film is about being able to string together coherent images that tell a story - the director's version of the truth - to the viewer. That and the fact that I love the editing process and recording my own music has meant that I find making videos and short films very satisfying indeed. In this last year I (under the R&R banner) have put together five music videos, eleven Write On programs, a 60 minute documentary on the paranormal and a couple of short movies, the most recent being the horror spoof, Bearz . We are currently in pre-production of a thirty minute thriller called First CUT . Now, I feel, is the time to announce to you the long term picture. Bu...

The publishing industry is changing beyond all recognition - but it seems that writers are the last to catch up. I read an article the other day written by an established author of sixteen years. Her wisdom and experience echoed many of the things I've been saying for a long time... The new reality is that it's getting harder and harder to get published by traditional publishers - for many reasons, which I'll outline below. But that it's getting easier and easier for authors to become successful independently of the traditional publishing industry. The Internet - and Amazon in particular - has made it entirely possible for authors to circumvent the need for publishers at all! A determined writer can now find their own fans and sell their books directly to their readers, without having to sign publishing contracts, spend years rewriting manuscripts to the publisher's satisfaction, or try to live on the...

Welcome to this week's newsletter. Get my latest novel from Kindle!   It's a shock a minute story about murder, mystery, love, loyalty and two friends with awesome psychic powers!  If you've ever wondered if I could write a 'real' novel, now's your chance to find out!  I promise you'll be thrilled! Click HERE to get PSI-KIDS: Willow for 99 cents - Now! Click on the image above to see this week's Write On video!  STOP PRESS: Soon - probably next week - I'll be starting a new masterclass on Plotting Fiction . Look out for that! THIS WEEK'S ARTICLE: Give Your Characters Some Attitude Rob Parnell The other day, a writer friend of mine told me her publisher recommended she read a certain book to get the flavor of what they liked to publish. Eager to know, my author friend rushed to find the book and devour it... only to feel slightly disappointed - and confused. She wondere...

Are you struggling to make ends meet?  Do you have a burning desire to make a living as a writer but are stuck running the rat race, forever wishing and hoping something would happen to change your life? This described me about eleven years ago.  I so desperately wanted to be a full time writer and had wanted that all my life.  I'd had some success, sure. A few books published, a couple of screenplays sold and more articles and plays written than I care to dwell over.  But still the BIG DREAM eluded me.  Between stints of blissful creativity, reality (and the debt collectors - literally) would come knocking at the door and force me back into the temp market - doing office work I abhorred with a passion. Now, thank heaven, my wife and I live a cool life.  We write, we travel, we get invited to speak, we buy toys, and we teach the gift of writing to thousands of students every day. How did this happen? How did I get so lu...